The U.S. Cleared a Giant Space Mirror to Shine Sunlight After Dark and Turn Night into Day

Screenshot from the video “Building a Space Mirror” – BenNBuilds. Image credit: Reflect Orbital. Article by Tibi Puiu. ZME Science – July 14, 2026.

The night sky may soon acquire a switch. A California startup plans to send an enormous, steerable mirror into orbit and use it to bounce sunlight onto selected patches of Earth after sunset. On July 9, the Federal Communications Commission authorized Reflect Orbital to deploy and operate Eärendil-1, a prototype satellite carrying a reflective film roughly 59 feet, or 18 meters, across. In effect, the satellite would be able to make day out of night on a selected surface of the planet. […]

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Video: Building a Space Mirror – BenNBuilds